This is a 1980 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am painted with black house paint. The words from the book of Revelation from the New Testament of the bible scratched into it, covering the whole surface of the car.

below: “Faithful until death” stands out on the door handle. From Revelation 2:10 “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

This is actually the third car that Scott produced. The first, finished in 1988 ended up being crushed into a cube of metal. The second, finished in 1993, is now in the National Gallery in Ottawa. This one was finished in 2000 but it was homeless for a while. In 2007 it was donated to the AGO (at that time it was housed in a barn). It was first displayed in 2016.

below: All 22 chapters of the Revelation to John fits on the car, including the part seen here: “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” This is Revelations 3:12.

The book of Revelation is written in a very symbolic language and there are different interpretations of its meaning. One interpretation is that it was written to give ancient Christians hope for dealing with their own problems – to stand firm in their faith despite the threat of death from the Roman government.

Another interpretation is that our world is doomed, that Revelation is a description of the “end of days” sometime in the future. This is the futurist interpretation of Revelation with its premise that the prophecies in Revelation still await a future, literal fulfillment. In this interpretation, the four horsemen described in the sixth chapter symbolize the evils to come at the end of the world. This seems to be the interpretation that gets a lot of attention.

I have no intention of writing an essay on this but I wanted to mention the horsemen because some of the words used by the AGO to describe John Scott’s car are “A symbol of American consumerism and machismo, the vehicle has been modified to produce a contemporary mode of transport fit for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. The Trans Am, a doomsday vehicle on the highway to hell.

What drives a person to scratch out these biblical words, not once, but three times? What goes through a person’s head while they’re working on it?

And I have one more question – wouldn’t a Mustang be a more appropriate vehicle for the four horsemen?

A morning exploring some of the art galleries at the University of Toronto.

below: Robarts Library, a large concrete building, is part of the University of Toronto and is their main humanities and social sciences library. It opened in 1973 and has been called Fort Book ever since.

I have walked past this library many times but I have never gone inside. What I didn’t know about this building is that it is also home to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. It is named after a Thomas Fisher (1792-1874), who came from Yorkshire to Upper Canada in 1821 and settled by the Humber River. In 1973, his grandsons, Sidney and Charles Fisher, donated many books to U of T . Since then, the library has grown to approximately 740,000 volumes including hundreds of versions of Alice in Wonderland in many different languages. They also collect manuscripts, photographs, and other rare materials. You can search their holdings online.

below: The view from the 4th floor observation deck.

At the moment, the Thomas Fisher Library has an exhibition called “Fleeting Moments, Floating Worlds, and the Beat Generation: The Photography of Allen Ginsberg”. Ginsberg (1926-1997) is known for his poetry but he also took pictures. The Thomas Fisher library has the largest collection of Ginsberg prints in the world.

Ginsberg became friends with William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, and the trio later established themselves as the main players in the Beat Movement with their unconventional writing and wild (for the times) lifestyles. Ginsberg’s first published work was “Howl” in 1956. It was called “an angry, sexually explicit poem”. The San Francisco Police Department declared it to be obscene and arrested the publisher. The court ruled that it was not obscene. I can see it being “ahead of its time” in 1956 but today it’s fairly tame.

dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,

angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,

who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of

cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,”

below: Three books about The Beats.

The Ginsberg exhibit continues until the 27th of April.

A short walk through part of the St. George campus….did I mention that it was snowing at the time?… to another art gallery on campus.

below: We passed a moose standing in the snow.

The second gallery was the Art Museum at Hart House. One of the exhibits showing there is “Figures of Sleep”. Straight from the gallery website is this description of the exhibit: ” [it]…considers the cultural anxieties manifest in the popular and critical imagination around the collapsing biological function of sleep under economic, social and technological transformation”. What it is is a collection of videos, photographs, and artwork depicting sleep, i.e. people sleeping by a number of different artists. This exhibit ends on 3rd March.

below: Watching videos of people sleeping

below: She’s very life like. She’s also much smaller than life sized but even so, she was a bit creepy. “Untitled (old woman in bed)”, 2000-2002, by Ron Mueck.

below: The Malcove Collection is in the same gallery. The collection includes about 500 pieces, not all of which are on display at the moment. Dr. Lillian Malcove (1902-1981) was born in Russia just before her parents emigrated to Canada and settling in Winnipeg. She graduated from the University of Manitoba with an M.D. and then spent most of her adult life as a Freudian psychoanalyst in New York City. Over her life time she amassed a collection of art that she bequeathed to U of T.

below: From the Malcove collection, ‘Male Dedicant’, made of limestone, Coptic, late 4th century or early 5th century

below: Detail from “The Burning Bush”, 19th century.

below: Last but not least, and having nothing to do with art, is this plaque on a wall near the art gallery at Hart House. It commemorates the relationship between the Canadian and Polish Armies during WW1. A transcription of it appears below.

In the early months of 1917, twenty three Polish probationary officers were trained here by the staff of the Canadian School of Infantry in Toronto. They were the forerunners of more than 20,000 North American volunteers of Polish descent who were trained in Canada (mostly at Niagara on the Lake) to serve in the French Army, ultimately commanded by Joseph Haller. The existence of this Polish Army in France went far to assure the presence of Poland at the Peace Conference at the end of the war and played a significant role in the reconstitution of a reunited and independent Poland after 123 years of partition. The Canadian Polish Congress has placed this tablet to commemorate the ardent Polish patriotism of so many Polish volunteers from the United States and Canada. The Congress also wishes to honour the Canadian officers who trained the volunteers, including notably Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Lepan of the staff of this university and his principal subordinates, all from this university as well as Major C.R. Young, Major H.H. Madill, Major W.F. Kirk and Major F.B. Kenrick. A.D. 1990

below: My starting point the other day was Castle Frank subway station (Bloor Street East, close to the top of Parliament Street). This station opened in 1966 although the entrance that you see in the photo was an addition that was added only a few years ago.

below: An interesting round window in the station entrance. You can see part of the window in the picture above, peaking from around the side of the tree trunk.

below: The subway “tunnel” between Sherbourne and Castle Frank stations isn’t really a tunnel at all. This view surprised me – I know that I have driven under this structure on Rosedale Valley Road. I don’t recall knowing that it was for the subway.

below: Graffiti under the bridge… even though I am drawn to bridges I didn’t go down the hill to investigate. That can be another blog post at another not so muddy time. This spot can be accessed from the Rekai Family Parkette which is at the SE corner of Bloor and Parliament, tucked in between Bloor and St. James Cemetery.

below: More graffiti seen from the parkette.

below: St. James Cemetery was opened in July of 1844 at a time when the population of Toronto was around 18,000 and most of them lived south of Queen Street. The cemetery would have been out in the country but now, more than 150 years later, the cemetery is in the middle of the city. There are 89,000 interments here including two of my great x 2 (or 3?) grandparents and some of their descendants (they’re not shown in the picture though!).

below: A little reminder that Christmas wasn’t all that long ago.

The fastest route from Castle Frank to Cabbagetown is straight down Parliament Street. But of course, the direct route is rarely the one that I take. The area is full of little alleys and lanes and they all call to me.

below: These animals are part of a mural painted in support of Riverdale Farm which is nearby.

below: Reading the news, many newses.

below: In Flos Williams Lane there are a number of stenciled words. “Guilty until proven rich” I first saw here a couple of years ago. I don’t walk this lane very often so I’m not sure how long ago the other sayings appeared.

below: Like most walks, there were interesting windows to be seen.

below: …and doors too. A very bright orange door!

below: But unlike most walks, there was a giant gecko or lizard.

One of the appeals of Cabbagetown is the number of older houses, many of which are heritage buildings.

below: This house was built in 1858 and its first resident was Charles MacKay, a customs official who lived here from 1858 to 1865. The infill line of townhouses behind it are a much more recent development.

below: Cabbagetown has more of these ‘workers cottages’ or ‘gothic cottages’ than anywhere else I’ve walked. This arrangement of three identical houses in a row is especially rare (but not unique, at least not yet).

below: This cottage is in the middle of another threesome but they are not identical. The yellow door on the pale blue house is a wonderful colour combination. A little bit of sunshine.

below: Even though it has been renovated and an addition added to the back, this house still retains some of its historical roots.

below: And more history… I was attracted to this building by the beautiful double doors. Once I was close to the house, I noticed the ghost sign hiding behind the tree branches. The Daily Herald is no longer but it the mark it made here remains. A mysterious mark though because I can find no record of such a publication. In fact, probably “the sign had been part of a play or film that the home’s owner was involved in and he installed the sign on an act of whimsy.” (source, bottom of page) You gotta love whimsy!

below: Whimsy you say? Bright pink flamingo whimsy in a store window. They look like they’re ready for a rainy day.

below: There were also some store windows that were a bit more serious.

below: I think that Carlton and Parliament is one of the most colourful intersections in the city and I always enjoy passing this way. This is the view if you are standing in the middle of Carlton street and looking east towards Parliament.

below: This large colourful mural on the wall of Cabbagetown Corner Convenience, NE corner of Carlton and Parliament, has become a landmark since it was painted by Ryan Dineen in 2005.

below: The 506 Carlton streetcar makes its left turn from Parliament. It’s never a quick and easy turn. In fact, it’s usually frustratingly slow.

And in case you were wondering, yes, you can find cabbages in cabbagetown. This big one is on the Cabbagetown mural on the side of the LCBO building.

And yes, there is a lot more to Cabbagetown than this… and I will use that as an excuse to return another time!

Marys in Toronto
It has become one of the things I do – I look for ‘Marys’ when I travel. For one reason or another, I started seeing Marys in Toronto too. Perhaps it was because I spent more time in galleries and museums on those really cold days that we had last winter. There aren’t nearly as many Marys here as there are in Lima Peru or in Malta. Hence, finding them was a bit more difficult but that just made the hunt more interesting.

below: In the window of Sonic Boom on Spadina

below: a sculpture of Mary and Jesus, from the Gardiner Museum

below: ‘The Dormition of the Virgin’ by Esteban Marquez De Velasco (c.1655 – 1720, Spain).
This painting is in the Art Gallery of Ontario. It depicts the moment before Mary falls asleep and her soul leaves her body to join Him in heaven. The apostles surround Mary and kneel in prayer.

below: ‘Madonna and Child’ by Andrea Della Robbia (1435-1525, Florence Italy).
Glazed terracotta. On loan to the AGO from the family of Murray Frum.

below: In front of St. Clare Roman Catholic church on St. Clair Ave. West

below: In the window of Crows Nest barber shop, Kensington Market

below: Figurines for sale at Honest Ed’s

below: Holographic cards with images of Mary Jesus in a red plastic tub.
You can buy a card at Honest Ed’s for 69 cents.

below: Sagrada Familia, by the front door of a house in Little Portugal

below: Hiding amongst the drapery sits Mary and her child.

below: Another from the AGO, Virgin and Child from circa 1750, once in a chapel of a Montreal church.
Wood with traces of pigment.

below: Mount Pleasant cemetery

below: On an ofrenda at a Dia de Muertos celebration

below: Radio Maria, una voce cristiana nella tua casa, part of the Holy Mother World Networks.

below: With other members of the Nativity scene, for sale in a vintage store on Queen West.
I think that $20 buys you the contents of the box.

below: In a front yard in the Junction
I’ve put her at the end because I am not 100% sure that she is a Mary. The Virgin Mary is usually depicted with a light blue shawl draped over her shoulder or else holding a baby Jesus.

And here ends that game. This post represents almost a year’s worth of looking and while the hunt was interesting in the beginning it’s charm is starting to wear thin. I could probably find more Marys in churches and cemeteries but I think I will listen to words of wisdom and let it be.

Dia de Muertos, Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday where and friends come together to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It occurs at the end of October (31 Oct to 2 Nov). Here in Toronto there was a Day of the Dead festival at Harbourfront this past weekend.

One of the traditions of Dia de Muertos is the making of ofrendas which are altars dedicated to the deceased person. Jose Clemente Orozco was a Mexican painter (1883-1949). He specialized in painting murals in frescoes and his work can be seen in Mexico and in the USA.

Another altar that was on display was one made by artist Alberto Cruz in honour of Pablo Picasso.

The Casa Cultura Mexicana made an ofrenda to honour the Prehispanic indigenous people and warriors of Mexico.
The bottom part consisted of pictures made with coloured rice.

Food items such as rice, beans, and corns were an important part of the ofrenda.

Ofrendas are decorated with sugar skulls and marigolds (or yellow and orange paper flowers) as well as candles, photos, momentos from the person’s life, and things that symbolize something about that person. Sometimes serious, sometimes whimsical.

What would your friends and family put on an ofrenda in your memory?

There was also clay available if you wanted to make a small skull or other symbol for the occasion.